February 8, 2018 5:03pm ESTFebruary 8, 2018 5:03pm ESTWhile it will initially be lost in the whirlwind of the Cavs' massive overhaul, the Lakers did an overhaul of their own in terms of their future obligations.Lakers president of basketball operations Magic Johnson(Getty Images)

In the first big move of deadline day, the Lakers traded Jordan Clarkson and Larry Nance Jr. to the Cavs for Isaiah Thomas, Channing Frye and Cleveland’s own 2018 first-round pick.

While Thomas and Frye can absolutely contribute to the Lakers for the remainder of this season — though Frye makes sense as a buyout candidate — both of them are on expiring contracts while Clarkson and Nance will make a combined $14.8 million next season. Cleveland’s first-round pick will take a little less than $2 million off the total, but that roughly $13 million is absolutely massive for a team looking to clear cap space for this summer.

If the Lakers let their current unrestricted free agents walk, they would have about $47.8 million in space this summer, and that includes the $12.4 million cap hold for pending restricted free agent Julius Randle. If they renounce him as well, their cap space skyrockets to just under $60 million.

At the league’s current $101 million estimate for the 2018-19 season salary cap, $60 million is just about enough for two max contracts for players with 7-9 seasons of NBA experience and about $6 million short of the $65.7 million necessary to sign one 30 percent max player and one 35 percent max player. If they have a need to move that extra money, the Lakers could stretch the final two seasons of Luol Deng’s contract and create an extra $10.6 million that would be more than enough.

The most straightforward way to deploy that cap space would be on free agents, but one benefit of the Lakers’ new-look books is that there would not be urgency. Numerous franchises, including the Lakers, have gotten into trouble over the last few offseasons because their space burned a hole in their pockets.

If LeBron James and/or Paul George decide to come to Los Angeles, then the Lakers can make it happen, but they can hold to something akin to a "max guys or nothing" stance and simply re-enter the bidding in 2019 when Jimmy Butler, Klay Thompson and possibly Kawhi Leonard will be on the market. It would also be much less onerous to either trade or stretch Deng at that point, paralleling his former teammate Joakim Noah’s situation in New York without as much urgency to finalize the separation now.

Those general parameters were in place before this move, but that additional $13 million makes it easier to be patient with Julius Randle. The new Collective Bargaining Agreement did not fix the structural problems with restricted free agency, which the Lakers can use to their benefit. Even if Randle agreed to an offer sheet with another team on the first day of free agency, the clock for Los Angeles’ front office does not start until the end of the July Moratorium on July 6. If you add in the extra two days teams get for match decisions, management has at least a full week to see how everything shakes out before making a decision on Randle.

However, the Lakers likely have even more time than that because the delay makes teams more reluctant to commit to offer sheets with other teams’ restricted free agents. Since so few teams have cap space this season, it is entirely possible that the market for Randle has either partially or fully dried up, potentially allowing the Lakers to get him at a reasonable salary that could be traded later on without requiring an asset.

While he has played a part in the Lakers’ rebuild to this point, Clarkson’s contract ensured that he would not be a part of their long-term plans. That eventuality happened sooner than expected as a key part of a much larger deal involving Nance, Cleveland’s first-rounder and some high-profile veterans, but Magic Johnson and Rob Pelinka set the stage for an even more interesting July.